Johnny Lee

Researcher Johnny Lee became a YouTube star with his demo of Wii Remote hacks — bending the low-cost game piece to power an interactive whiteboard, a multitouch surface, a head-mounted display ...

Why you should listen

To understand Johnny Lee, just take a look at his website. Aside from his Wii Remote hacks -- voted the #1 tech demo of all time by Digg -- you can see all the other places his mind has turned: typography, photography, urban renewal ... to say nothing of his interesting sideline in Little Great Ideas, like the hypnotic "___ will ___ you."

After earning his PhD from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, he joined the team at Microsoft responsible for Project Natal, a controller-free motion sensing device for the Xbox 360. He's since turned his attention to accelerated technology R&D at Google.

What others say

“This guy deserves a medal.” — Cmdr Taco, Slashdot

Johnny Lee’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Johnny Lee

T.G.I.M.B.O.E.J. stands for The Great Internet Migratory Box Of Electronic Junk, and it’s celebrating its first anniversary this week. Do think of it as partly a social experiment, but more so a free-range parcel service-based electronics grab bag that circulates among hardware hackers who are eager to discover useful, cool, old, or even rare treasures […]

In an ingenious geek-out that’s almost too perfectly suited for TED, designer Ken Moore presents a much-anticipated hack of the Nintendo Wii Remote: a theremin. It seems to be a nearly serendipitous merger of TEDTalks by thereminist Pamelia Kurstin and Wii hacker Johnny Lee. Has anyone seen other hybridized Ideas Worth Spreading (coincidental or not)? […]

In today’s New York Times, Johnny Lee talks about his clever Wii hacks — and how he shared them with the world via viral video. Johnny Lee’s TEDTalk, in which he shows how to make an interactive whiteboard from a $40 game controller, is a perpetual Top 10 talk on TED.com. Lee’s amazing YouTube videos […]